Sensitivity of warm water fishes and rainbow trout to selected contaminants
John M. Besser, Rebecca A. Dorman, Chris D. Ivey, Danielle M. Cleveland, Jeffery A. Steevens
2020, Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology (104) 321-326
Guidelines for developing water quality standards allow U.S. states to exclude toxicity data for the family Salmonidae (trout and salmon) when deriving guidelines for warm-water habitats. This practice reflects the belief that standards based on salmonid data may be overprotective of toxic effects on other fish taxa. In acute tests...
Plastic faulting in ice
Narayama Golding, William B Durham, David J Prior, Laura A. Stern
2020, Journal of Geophysical Research- Solid Earth (125)
Plastic faulting is a brittle‐like failure phenomenon exhibited by water ice and several other rock types under confinement. It is suspected to be the mechanism of deep earthquakes and extreme cases of shear localization in shallow rocks. Unlike ordinary Coulombic failure, plastic faulting is characterized by...
Hydrologic connectivity determines dissolved organic matter biogeochemistry in northern high-latitude lakes
Sarah Ellen Johnston, Robert G. Striegl, Matthew J. Bogard, Mark M. Dornblaser, David E. Butman, Anne M. Kellerman, Kimberly P. Wickland, David C. Podgorski, Robert G. M. Spencer
2020, Limnology and Oceanography (65) 1764-1780
Northern high‐latitude lakes are undergoing climate‐induced changes including shifts in their hydrologic connectivity with terrestrial ecosystems. How this will impact dissolved organic matter (DOM) biogeochemistry remains uncertain. We examined the drivers of DOM composition for lakes in the Yukon Flats Basin in Alaska, an arid region of low relief that...
"Modified Unified Method" of carp capture
Duane Chapman
2020, Fact Sheet 2020-3005
Populations of Hypophthalmichthys molitrix (silver carp) and Hypophthalmichthys nobilis (bighead carp), (together referred to herein as “bigheaded carp”) have increased exponentially in the greater Mississippi River Basin. Detrimental effects on native fish and economically important fisheries have occurred where these invasive, filter-feeding fish are abundant. The Unified Method, a harvest...
Groundwater withdrawals and regional flow paths at and near Willow Grove and Warminster, Pennsylvania—Data compilation and preliminary simulations for conditions in 1999, 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2017
Daniel J. Goode, Lisa A. Senior
2020, Open-File Report 2019-1137
In 2014, groundwater samples from residential and public supply wells in the vicinity of two former U.S. Navy bases at Willow Grove and Warminster, and an active Air National Guard Station at Horsham, Bucks and Montgomery Counties, Pennsylvania, were found to have concentrations of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate...
Northward migration of the Oregon forearc on the Gales Creek fault
Ray Wells, Richard J. Blakely, Sean Bemis
2020, Geosphere (16) 660-684
The Gales Creek fault (GCF) is a 60-km-long, northwest-striking dextral fault system (west of Portland, Oregon) that accommodates northward motion and uplift of the Oregon Coast Range. New geologic mapping and geophysical models confirm inferred offsets from earlier geophysical surveys and document ∼12 km of right-lateral offset...
Did ice-charging generate volcanic lightning during the 2016–2017 eruption of Bogoslof volcano, Alaska?
Alexa R. Van Eaton, David J. Schneider, Cassandra Marie Smith, Matthew M. Haney, John J. Lyons, Ryan Said, David Fee, Robert H. Holzworth, Larry G. Mastin
2020, Bulletin of Volcanology (82)
The 2016–2017 shallow submarine eruption of Bogoslof volcano in Alaska injected plumes of ash and seawater to maximum heights of ~ 12 km. More than 4550 volcanic lightning strokes were detected by the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) and Vaisala’s Global Lightning Dataset (GLD360) over 9 months. Lightning...
Mule deer habitat selection following vegetation thinning treatments in New Mexico
Grant E. Sorensen, David W. Kramer, James W. Cain III, Chase A. Taylor, Philip S. Gipson, Mark C. Wallace, Robert D. Cox, Warren B. Ballard
2020, Wildlife Society Bulletin (44) 122-129
Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) survival and population growth in north-central New Mexico, USA, was previously reported to be limited by nutritional constraints due to poor forage conditions in degraded habitats. Management recommendations suggested thinning of pinyon–juniper to improve habitat quality for mule deer. To evaluate the...
What's in the hump of the humpback chub?
David Ward, Michael B. Ward
2020, Western North American Naturalist (80) 98-104
The function of the nuchal hump on adult humpback chub (Gila cypha) has been the subject of longtime conjecture. Hypotheses about the purpose of the hump range from it being a feature that confers hydrodynamic advantages in swift water to speculation about how the hump may have reduced predation vulnerability...
Assessment of multi-stressors on compositional turnover of diatom, invertebrate and fish assemblages along an urban gradient in Pacific Northwest streams (USA)
Ian R. Waite, Yangdong Pan, Patrick Edwards
2020, Ecological Indicators (112)
This study is part of the regional stream-quality assessment (RSQA) conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) project. The purpose of this study is to examine small streams along land-use and stressor gradients at the regional scale and to evaluate the relative importance of instream...
Holocene paleofloods and their climatological context, Upper Colorado River Basin, USA
Taojun Liu, Lin Ji, Victor R. Baker, Tessa M. Harden, Michael L. Cline
2020, Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment (44) 727-745
Given its singular importance for water resources in the southwestern U.S., the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB) is remarkable for the paucity of its conventional hydrological record of extreme flooding. This study uses paleoflood hydrology to examine a small portion the underutilized, but very extensive natural record of Holocene...
Preferential elution of ionic solutes in melting snowpacks: Improving process understanding through field observations and modeling in the Rocky Mountains
Diogo Costa, Graham A. Sexstone, J.W. Pomeroy, Donald H. Campbell, David W. Clow, M. Alisa Mast
2020, Science of the Total Environment (710) 1-15
The preferential elution of ions from melting snowpacks is a complex problem that has been linked to temporary acidification of water bodies. However, the understanding of these processes in snowpacks around the world, including the polar regions that are experiencing unprecedented warming and melting, remains limited despite being instrumental...
Groundwater availability of the Northern High Plains aquifer in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming
Steven M. Peterson, Jonathan P. Traylor, Moussa Guira
2020, Professional Paper 1864
Executive SummaryThe Northern High Plains aquifer underlies about 93,000 square miles of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming and is the largest subregion of the nationally important High Plains aquifer. Irrigation, primarily using groundwater, has supported agricultural production since before 1940, resulting in nearly $50 billion in sales in...
Mapping hotspots of potential ecosystem fragility using commonly available spatial data
Alexandre Genin, Steven R. Lee, Eric L. Berlow, Steven M. Ostoja, Sonia Kefi
2020, Biological Conservation (241)
Effective conservation requires prioritizing areas that are vulnerable to large, irreversible changes. Unfortunately, rigorously documenting these changes with experiments and long-term monitoring is not only costly, but may provide evidence that is too late to facilitate proactive decisions.We use a simple model to illustrate that commonly available short-term...
Continuous nitrate monitoring in groundwater and potential contribution to surface-water nitrogen loads in Mason County, Illinois
Lance R. Gruhn, Greg M. Nalley
2020, Fact Sheet 2019-3064
Illinois has some of the most productive farmland in the country. The use of fertilizers to improve crop production has increased, which has resulted in an increase in the concentration of nitrogen in many streams and aquifers. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, is...
The response of stream ecosystems in the Adirondack region of New York to historical and future changes in atmospheric deposition of sulfur and nitrogen
Shuai Shao, Charles T. Driscoll, Timothy J. Sullivan, Douglas A. Burns, Barry P. Baldigo, Gregory B. Lawrence, Todd C. McDonnell
2020, Science of the Total Environment (716)
The present-day acid-base chemistry of surface waters can be directly linked to contemporary observations of acid deposition; however, pre-industrial conditions are key to predicting the potential future recovery of stream ecosystems under decreasing loads of atmospheric sulfur (S) and nitrogen (N) deposition. The integrated biogeochemical model PnET-BGC was applied to...
Are migratory waterfowl vectors of seagrass pathogens?
Damian M. Menning, David H. Ward, Sandy Wyllie-Echeverria, Kevin Sage, Megan C. Gravley, Hunter Gravley, Sandra L. Talbot
2020, Ecology and Evolution (10) 2062-2073
Migratory waterfowl vector plant seeds and other tissues, but little attention has focused on the potential of avian vectoring of plant pathogens. Extensive meadows of eelgrass (Zostera marina) in southwest Alaska support hundreds of thousands of waterfowl during fall migration and may be susceptible to plant pathogens. We...
Understanding the effect of fire on vegetation composition and gross primary production in a semi-arid shrubland ecosystem using the Ecosystem Demography (EDv2.2) model
Karun Pandit, Hamid Dashti, Andrew A. Hudak, Nancy F. Glenn, Alejandro N Flores, Douglas J. Shinneman
2020, Biogeosciences Discussions (18) 2027-2045
Wildfires in sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) dominated semi-arid ecosystems in the western United States have increased dramatically in frequency and severity in the last few decades. Severe wildfires often lead to the loss of native sagebrush communities and change the biogeochemical conditions which make it difficult for sagebrush to regenerate. Invasion...
Meteotsunamis triggered by tropical cyclones
Maitane Olabarrieta, Luming Shi, David Nolan, John C. Warner
2020, Nature Communications (11)
Tropical cyclones are one of the most destructive natural hazards and much of the damage and casualties they cause are flood-related. Accurate characterization and prediction of total water levels during extreme storms is necessary to minimize coastal impacts. While meteotsunamis are known to influence water levels and to produce severe...
An aeolian grainflow model for Martian Recurring Slope Lineae
Colin M. Dundas
2020, Icarus (343)
Recurring Slope Lineae (RSL) on Mars have been enigmatic since their discovery; their behavior resembles a seeping liquid but sources of water remain puzzling. This work demonstrates that the properties of RSL are consistent with observed behaviors of Martian and terrestrial aeolian processes. Specifically, RSL are well-explained as flows of...
Shale gas development has limited effects on stream biology and geochemistry in a gradient-based, multiparameter study in Pennsylvania
Adam C. Mumford, Kelly O. Maloney, Denise M. Akob, Sarah Nettemann, Arianne Proctor, Jason Ditty, Luke Ulsamer, Josh Lookenbill, Isabelle M. Cozzarelli
2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (117) 3670-3677
The number of horizontally drilled shale oil and gas wells in the United States has increased from nearly 28,000 in 2007 to nearly 127,000 in 2017, and research has suggested the potential for the development of shale resources to affect nearby stream ecosystems. However, the ability to generalize current studies...
Simulation of water-management scenarios for the Mississippi Delta
Connor J. Haugh, Courtney D. Killian, Jeannie R. B. Barlow
2020, Scientific Investigations Report 2019-5116
To compare the effectiveness of proposed alternative water-supply scenarios on future water availability in the Mississippi Delta, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality are collaborating on the update and enhancement of an existing regional groundwater-flow model of the area. Through this collaboration, the model has...
Osmoregulatory role of the intestine in the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus)
Andre Barany, Ciaran A Shaughnessy, Juan Fuentes, Juan M Mancera, Stephen D. McCormick
2020, American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology (318) R410-R417
Lampreys are the most basal vertebrates with an osmoregulatory strategy. Previous research has established that salinity tolerance of sea lamprey increases dramatically during metamorphosis, but underlying changes in the gut have not been examined. In the present work, we examined changes in intestinal function during metamorphosis and...
Characterization of pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) spawning habitat in the Lower Missouri River
Caroline M. Elliott, Aaron J. DeLonay, Kimberly Chojnacki, Robert B. Jacobson
2020, Journal of Applied Ichthyology (36) 25-38
Acipenseriformes (sturgeons and paddlefish) globally have declined throughout their range due to river fragmentation, habitat loss, overfishing, and degradation of water quality. In North America, pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) populations have experienced poor to no recruitment, or substantial levels of hybridization with the closely related shovelnose sturgeon (S. platorynchus). The...
Persistence and plasticity in conifer water-use strategies
Max Berkelhammer, Chris Still, Francois Ritter, Matthew Winnik, Lesleigh Anderson, Rosemary Carroll, Mariah Carbone, Kenneth Williams
2020, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (125)
The selective use of seasonal precipitation by vegetation is critical to understanding the residence time and flow path of water in watersheds, yet there are limited datasets to test how climate alters these dynamics. Here, we use measurements of the seasonal cycle of tree ring 18O for two widespread conifer...
